Syntactic structure and acoustic pattern in speech perception Arthur Wingfield

Abstract

The interaction of syntactic structure and acoustic pattern in perceptual segmentation of heard speech was investigated using sentences recorded with intonation patterns appropriate to their underlying structure and sentences where intonation was placed in direct conflict with the underlying structure. Speech samples were monitored through dichotic earphones with messages switched from one ear to the other either between or within major linguistic constituents. Analysis of errors in source localization and in sentence reproduction suggested a primary role of acoustic pattern in segmentation is to cue underlying syntactic structure. Two subsidiary experiments provided evidence that observed effects were related to active perceptual processing of the speech signal. © 1971 Psychonomic Society, Inc.